Obama's CrackBerry addiction worth $25-50m to RIM

Barack Obama's high-visibility grousing about the imminent loss of his BlackBerry is the best possible endorsement for RIM, which has been suffering from the iPhone's explosive growth and the underwhelming response to its response, the BlackBerry Storm.

The New York Times notes that if Obama were not barred from taking RIM's money, he would be raking in at least $25 million for his obsessive devotion to his email device.

“You always want the celebrity to be a good fit with your brand, and is anybody considered a better communicator right now than Barack Obama, or a better networker?” said Fran Kelly, the chief executive of the advertising agency Arnold Worldwide, who estimated that an endorsement by Mr. Obama would be worth $25 million. “It couldn’t have a better spokesperson.”

$25 mil? Double that easy, said endorsement agent Doug Shabelman, since Obama is seen globally.

He’s consistently seen using it and consistently in the news arguing — and arguing with issues of national security and global welfare — how he absolutely needs this to function on a daily basis.

The worth to a company to have the president always talking about a BlackBerry and how it absolutely is a necessity to keep in touch with reality? Think about how far the company has come if they’re able to say, 'The president has to have this to keep in touch.' "